Jaipur, July 16: The Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju while addressing the 18th All India Legal Services Authority meet has said that more than five crore cases are pending in the courts of the country and questioned as to what will happen in the year 2047 ?
He said concrete steps should be taken so that in the next two years, two crore cases are reduced.
Rijiju said there is a need to coordinate between the Judiciary and the Executive to provide relief to common people. He said priority should be given to Hindi and local languages ββin working of the High Court.
Chief Justice NV Ramana said that in criminal cases, the process in itself is same as punishment. There are 6,11,000 prisoners in the country, 80 per cent of these are undertrial prisoners. He said efforts should be made to expedite the process of their disposal.
Addressing the program, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that the fees of lawyers has reached up to one crore rupees. Judges have also started giving their verdict by looking at the face value, undertrial prisoners remain in jail for many years and if they are acquired later, what must have passed on their hearts, wondered Gehlot.
Gehlot said that the situation in the country is getting worse, a democratically elected government is being broken through horse trading. In Rajasthan too, somehow the government survived, otherwise another chief minister would have stood here, he added.
He said that the country listens to the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister and the judges when they speak, but despite repeated requests, why is the Prime Minister not coming forward and saying that violence will not be tolerated. In Nupur Sharma’s case, 116 people including former judges came out in protest against two judges, he said. Gehlot questioned, in such a situation, how will the judges be able to work in a democratic way?